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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

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MATCHING MACHINE.- No. 555,495. Patented Mar. 3, 1896.

INVENTOR WITNESSES:

@ V 71. Baikal ATTORNEYS.

ANDREW B GRAHAM. PNOTDUTNQWASNINGTDN. D C

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

XVILLIAM H. BULLOCK, OF ()SlVEGO, NEV YORK.

MATCHING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION fQrming part of Letters Patent No. 555,495, dated March 3, 1896.

0 Application filed September 13, 1895. Serial No. 562,399. (Nomodeh) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM H. BULLOCK,

of Oswego, in the county of Oswego, in the State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Matching-Machines,

of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to machines for matching lumber for tongue-and-groove jointing,

and my object is to produce a machine in which a board of any width is fed into the machine,isslitted by multiple saws into strips of the d'esired width, and the edges of each of these strips are cut with a tongue and groove without separating said strips apart horizontally or changing their longitudinal'aligmment from that of the board as fed to the saws, but in which the strips are alternately shifted into different parallel horizontal planes as fast as they are fed, so that a rotating cutter will come between each pair of stripsto either cut a tongue or a groove in the parallel edges of the alternate strips, such cutters being arranged alternately aboveand below the plane of the board as it is fed, means being provided which spring the strips alternately above and below said plane into proper relation to the cutters; and in which, in case the lumber is thick, it can be resawed, as by a horizontal saw, then slitted longitudinally into strips of the desired width, arranged in pairs, and by suitable cutters the edges of each strip of eachpair are tongued and grooved simultaneously; all so'that by one handling a board is fed into the machine, cut into strips of the desired width and resawed into the desired thickness if desired, and all of the strips are tongued and grooved before leaving it.

Thus a board can be slitted into four strips and each of these strips can be tongued and grooved simultaneously, whereas by the ordinaryway the board and each strip must be separately handled; and in case a board is resawed and then slitted by three saws, eight strips are produced, and these are alltongued and grooved simultaneously, and by the single handling of feeding the board into the machine, while by the ordinary way the board being fedthrough between said rollers. suitable surface-planer 5, mounted upon a desired.

elevation 1 of the feed-rollers, slitting-saw,

strip-pressing rollers, strip-separatin g wedge, tenon and groove cutters, and showing by the dotted lines a resawing saw, and showing a board passing through, being slitted into strips, the strips forced into different horizontal planes, and the cutters in operation upon their edges. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of four strips and four strip-pressin g rollers for forcing them into different planes, on line m, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is avertical sectional elevation on liney in Fig. 1, showing four strips being tongued and grooved. Fig. 4 is a like viewshowing four strips resawed into eight strips and all being tongued and grooved by double cutters simultaneously.

Inasmuch as the diiferent shafts and rollers are all journaled in ordinary bearings,

and these can be mounted upon any suitable frame of any desired construction, and because such frame and bearings are no part of my invention, I have not shown them in the drawings, as any intelligent mechanic can readily construct them.

Suitable feed-rollers 2 are secured upon suitably-journaled shafts 3, and 4 is a boarg suitable shaft 6, can be used when it is desired to plane the top of the board, andalike planer can be suitably mounted so as to plane the lower side thereof when it is desired to plane both sides, as when the board is to be resawed.

The dotted lines 7 indicate a suitable resawing-saw and shaft which can be used when Upon a suitably-journaled shaft 8 slitting-saws 9 are mounted in such manner that they can be adjusted according to the width of the strips to be cut, and these leave the strips 1.0 all in the same horizontal plane.

Upon suitably-journaled shafts 11 rollers 12 13 are secured alternately above and be low and bearing upon the alternate strips to force one down and the next one up into different planes and separating the ends of the strips, so that the first on the left will pass under the wedge-separator 14, the next strip will pass over it, and so on. The result of all this is that the strips are thus separated vertically, so that the cutters 15 16 can have aeeess to and cut the tongues and grooves in all the strips simultaneously. These cutters are all of ordinary construction and are mounted, the cutters 15 upon suitable vertical shafts 17, suitably mount-ed above the strips, and the cutters 16 upon suitably-journaled shafts 18 under the strips, all being so arranged that the upper cutters are in the proper plane to tongue and groove the upper strips and the lower cutters to tongue and groove the lower strips, all without laterally separating the strips.

Suitable feed-rollers 19 are suitably mounted upon suitably-journaled shafts in front and rear of the cutters and also above and below the strips, all bearing upon and holding the strips onto that position of the separator rearward from the wedgingportion and where the faces are parallel.

In order to insure the perfect cutting of the corners of the strips, the inner ends of the cutters are recessed into the separator and their outer ends project beyond the outer faces of the strips, as respectively shown at 20 and 21 in Fig. 4.

In Fig. 4 the cutters are shown as double and each tonguing and grooving two strips, as where the lumber is resawed, so that four double cutters are simultaneously finishing eight strips.

It will thus be seen that the principle of my invention is the vertical separation by a suitable wedge, or by a wedge and rollers, of the several strips without moving them laterally, except possibly where the strips are too narrow to permit the insertion and operation of a cutter between two strips which lie in the same plane.

It will also be seen that where desired the slitting-saw can be omitted and the previously-sawed strips can be fed into the machine with their adjacent edges in contact,

and that they will then be alternately sprung into different planes and ton gued and grooved as aforesaid, and that such previously-sawed strips, when fed in can be 'resawed, if desired.

In Fig. 5 I show a mechanism for guiding the strips without spreading them laterally, consisting of partitions or guides 22, which are secured to brackets 23, which travel in ways 24 across the separator and are seen red at any desired point according to the width of the strips in any ordinary manner. These guides hold each strip in proper relation to the cutters, so that the tongue and groove of each strip will be of proper size or depth, be cause they prevent any lateral sprii iging of a strip.

hat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination with suitable cutters arranged alternately above and below a given plane, of suitable separating-rollers whereby alternate strips of lumber are spread vertically into the planes of the cutters, whereby the opposite edges of the respective strips are simultaneously tongued. and grooved.

2. The combination with suitable feed-rollers between which a piece of lumber is fed and a slitting'saw to cut it into strips, of separating-rollers whereby alternate strips are spread vertically into parallel planes, and cutters arranged to out the edges of any two strips in the same plane simultaneously.

The combination with suitable feed-rollers between which a piece of lumber is fed, a slitting-saw to cut it into strips and a resaw ing-saw to cut the lumber horizontally, of separating-rollers whereby alternate pairs of strips are spread vertically into different planes and double cutters arranged to cut the edges of all the pairs of strips simultaneously.

at. The combination with suitable cutters arranged alternately above and below a given plane, of suitable separating-rollers whereby alternate strips of lumber are spread vertically into the planes of the cutters, and guides 22 which engage with the edges of said strips to hold them relatively to said cutters against lateral deflection.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 26th day of August, 1895.

\VILLIAM ll. BULLOCK.

In presence of C. IV. SMITH, J ESSIE E. MURRAY. 

